Acquired hypofibrinogenemia in a patient with multiple myeloma

We report a case of acquired hypofibrinogenemia with multiple myeloma presenting λ-type IgG monoclonal protein. The patient had anemia and renal deficiency, and also developed bleeding tendency due to severe coagulopathy. Her fibrinogen level was under the detectable limits in a functional assay. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and immunoblotting analysis results were consistent with functional assay results, and deficiency patterns observed in cross-mixing tests for PT and aPTT confirmed the diagnosis of hypofibrinogenemia. To determine the cause of hypofibrinogenemia, we purified the patient’s immunoglobulin via protein A agarose, and confirmed that fibrinogen was included in the bound fraction, strongly indicating paraprotein interference with fibrinogen. As accelerated removal of fibrinogen was indicated, we incubated the patient’s plasma up to 48 h, but did not observe significant loss of fibrinogen. In sharp contrast, fibrinogen returned to below the detection level 12 h after infusion of fresh frozen plasma. These findings support leukocyte-mediated fibrinogen removal, rather than paraprotein-triggered fibrinogen instability. Surprisingly, the patient’s paraprotein was IgG2, but we speculate the amount of paraprotein (IgG 5346 mg/dL) compensated for lower affinity to Fcγ receptors.